Charging issue on my loboy. 6volt system. I paid for genny rebuild and bought the American made VR in the same store --- had both bench tested and worked fine.

They worked but in 2 years since there has been intermitent charging no-gos. Even once I removed both and took them back. THey tried it and it charged for them. Put it back on and it charged for awhile.

Temporarily grounding the F terminal has “reset” the system and gets it going again for just so long. Now that solution is lasting less and less—

Eugene-on my cub I have the dim, bright , and rear positions only. But I do know what kind of switch you are referring to.

Jim, I will fore sure check that.I remember a last year when I removed the VR I took a dremel with a grinding bit on it and roughed up/shined up the metal holes on the bracket that bolts the VR down. I also used toothed washers just to be certain.

I'll try it again and see what happens

Also If i remember correct there is an inner rubber seal on the inside VR cover. Also there is a braided copper wire that runs inside along that. If the seal is not aligning properly when cover screws down, could the copper wire be contacting on the inside cover and messing things up?

Thank-you-for all the replys. This intermittent issue is getting annoying. I was way back in my yard yesterday with the lowboy pushing huge leaf piles back in the woods with landscape rake. Was lots of fun until the battery went dead from lack of charging, Walked back and borrowed other 6 volt from my other cub. Yet another reason why you need at least 2 cubs minimum!!

I went through and wire brushed all the wiring in the charging circuit on my cubs and have not had intermittent charging since I did that. On the Loboy, I even brushed all the connections inside and outside the generator. It just takes one high resistance connection....

Since it charges when you ground the field then I assume the generator is fine although it may still have some intermittent issues. Cleaning the commutator won't hurt but I would check the regulator circuit which includes the regulator and the wires to and from. Check the grounds but don't ignore the wires and contacts to and from the regulator. Check the condition of the braided jumper wire, the ones I have seen jump across the rubber mounts to ground the regulator body. If you can get to the regulator and its wires while running then just tap and move the parts to see if you can reproduce the problem.

Update: Went to push some snow around last night and VR was not charging again

Tried grounding the F terminal to get a charging boost and nothing

I removed the VR cover and ran it. turned lights on and the ammeter showed drain big time. Tried grounding F terminal again and nothing as far as charge.No sparking on the F terminal side points either

with the tractor running after few minutes of this the points started the small sparking on the F terminal side that they "normally should " when lights were not on but tractor runningit began operating as it should, and charged for a few seconds then quit again

When lights are on, the F terminal points appear to close and there is not sparking across the points.

Shut the tractor down and got some clean 2500 grit sandpaper-- and dressed the F terminal points. It appears to now be charging again.

Can the points in these new VRS's (mine is USA made) be bad? I have done this before on this VR. I hope the points stay clean on this now

So I'm not the only one with perceived random charging issues. On both of my cubs, they show charge for the first 5-10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, then show 0 or even discharge for the rest run of the yard mowing. Stop and restart and it does the same thing, charge for a while, then stops charging.

Get out your voltmeter and check the battery voltage - if it's not low enough, it won't show charging. Check it before start, after start, and when it stops showing charge. I bet you'll see a fully charged battery when it stops 'charging'..

I swap one battery between cubs and the battery has stayed up all year......

ntrenn wrote:So I'm not the only one with perceived random charging issues. On both of my cubs, they show charge for the first 5-10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes, then show 0 or even discharge for the rest run of the yard mowing. Stop and restart and it does the same thing, charge for a while, then stops charging.

Get out your voltmeter and check the battery voltage - if it's not low enough, it won't show charging. Check it before start, after start, and when it stops showing charge. I bet you'll see a fully charged battery when it stops 'charging'..

I swap one battery between cubs and the battery has stayed up all year......

Thats not the case at all on mine

I know it is not charging by simply turning on the lights and watching the ammeter drop significantly without ever recovering as long as lights are on.

Battery has also went dead on me due to not getting recharged from the VR issue

Last edited by ToddW on Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.